Abstract
Three filter strips were conducted on self-designed soil bins. Taking a filter strip with no vegetation as contrast, the effectiveness of vegetation and soil conditions on heavy metals (including copper and zinc) removal efficiencies were investigated by simulated runoff experiment. The results showed that the adsorbed state is the main existing form of heavy metal. For surface runoff, most of total copper and total zinc are trapped in first 4m and it is ineffective to increase the distance beyond 4m for removal. Vegetation has no significant effect on total copper and total zinc removal, while the soil with higher content of organic matter is contributing to total Zn interception. For subsurface runoff, the removal efficiencies of total copper and total zinc can reach to above 95.38% and both vegetation and soil conditions have no significant effects. Vegetation is contributing to copper ion and zinc ion removal significantly. Soil condition is only a significant factor to zinc ion, with higher content of organic matter as a contributing factor.
Highlights
Even Intensive agriculture has sustained the world development, but some agricultural activities are contributing to the environmental health decreases at local, regional, and global scales
Vegetative filter strip here is defined as a band of soil planted with permanent vegetation, and when the cropland runoff flows across the area, it undergoes a decrease of pollutant concentration and volume
Heavy metal existing in runoff water and sediment is generally divided into particulate and dissolved fractions by filter through a 0.45m membrane
Summary
Even Intensive agriculture has sustained the world development, but some agricultural activities are contributing to the environmental health decreases at local, regional, and global scales. The excess sediment, nutrient and heavy metals from agricultural runoff have been a major cause to water quality deterioration. Vegetative filter strip here is defined as a band of soil planted with permanent vegetation, and when the cropland runoff flows across the area, it undergoes a decrease of pollutant concentration and volume. Numerous studies have shown that it is a proposing way to attenuate sediment and nutrient in cropland run off [2,3,4,5,6]. Vegetative filter strip can disperse current and reduce the velocity of runoff and promote sedimentation, infiltration and adsorption. The vegetation types used in studies include perennial grasses [7,8,9,10,11], shrubs [12,13,14], forests [15,16] and combinations of those above
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